Clemson Professor Has Spent a Lifetime Studying Eclipses

For this professor, seeing the moon block out the sun is nothing new. In fact, it's passion he's followed for decades around the globe.

Author:
wltx

Published:
6:53 PM EDT August 12, 2017

Columbia, SC (WLTX) - South Carolina is lucky to have the man who has spent the longest time under eclipse totality in the world.

Yes, you read that right.

Dr. Donald Liebenberg has experienced 26 total solar eclipses in his life to study the heat of the corona. His longest totality (where the sun is completely blocked by the moon) is 74 minutes. That was over Africa when he flew a Concord that allowed him to follow the eclipse from the air.

He's an adjunct professor of astronomy at Clemson University and says the eclipse is one of the best phenomena a human being can experience here on Earth.

Dr. Liebenberg's tip to us is to take a moment to put the phone and cameras down and just look at the corona of the sun during totality. (Which is safe. But anyway He'll be doing that from his driveway which is just one mile out of the center of totality.